'You don't want to trash it': Large format photography is painstaking — and expensive (2024)

Growing up on the island of Mauritius, off Africa's south-east coast, Dominique Pierre-Nina was a long way from the world of creating images for fashion magazines.

But, encouraged by an aunt, he has spent his life dabbling in photography, as a serious hobbyist taking both fashion and landscape portraits.

"When I was a kid, my aunt, who migrated to the UK, came back to the island with a camera that she gave to me as a gift, and I started taking photographs," said Dominique, who now lives at Jamberoo on the NSW South Coast.

Apart from the camera gifted to him, Dominique also became intrigued by a local photographer on Mauritius who would take his family's portraits with 4x5-inch large format camera. A hood would cover the photographeras he took the shots.

"I was intrigued by how this man would cover his head and the next thing you knew an image would appear,"Dominique says.

It wasn't until he was in his late 30s that Dominique completed a darkroom course and moved from amateur to hobbyist, occasionally selling his photographs.

"The natural progression is that you get your own darkroom so you can control the contrast, the developing time and experiment," he says.

What is large format photography?

Large format cameras are impressive to look at and, after a little practice and experimentation, relatively simple to operate.

The device has no automatic features and instead rely on the operator to compose, focus and correctly expose an image by setting the aperture, shutter and film speed manually.

"With digital you have all the information at your fingertips, you can over or under expose, change the composition, it happens in a split of a second, but with large format photography, we don't have that luxury," Dominique says.

Large format photography starts with 4x5 inch sheets of film that are inserted into holders, rather than packaged as rolls, like 35mm film.

"Don't start experimenting with large format if you are not a competent photographer because you'll just tear your hair out," Dominque says.

Autumn light

In autumn, the rolling green hills of Jamberoo and surrounds beckon to Dominique and he ventures out to capture the exquisite light with his large format camera.

While he favours landscape photography, Dominque also enjoys the challenge of shooting in urban environments.

"If I am walking around urban environments, I take street photography, which incorporates portraits, street scenes, anything, as long as the composition is there, the light is there, and all these elements come together.

"Now, when you are on the street, things are happening fast so you have to be pretty snappy.

"But in terms of landscape you can take your time to compose the image, wait for the right light, which large format allows you to do because you are on a tripod, nothing is moving, things are static unless it's a windy day."

'The dance'

Dominique says experimenting with large format can be frustrating and costly but it also takes time, and that is all part of what he refers to as "the dance".

"The dance is to set your scene in landscape or portrait mode.

"Decide on your aperture, focus your image, check that everything is zeroed in and then once everything is completed, and as near perfection as you can get it, then you would go ahead and release the shutter.

"This is a great experience."

He says he loves "the anxiety and the drama" that come with large format photography.

"You still get it wrong, and every now and then you get it right.

"It's a journey and that's what you remember."

Dominique says he is often left praying and hoping he has ticked all the boxes for a good shot because he won't know until he has processed the film, and film is expensive at $20 per negative.

"Unlike digital photography where you walk along and shoot and delete the image if you don't like it, shooting on a $20 piece of film means you don't want to just trash it," Dominique says.

And that's where knowledge and artistic skills really come into play.

"With film photography you have to know your craft, and I like to think I know my craft, but having said that I am forever evolving," Dominique says.

"For me, the skill I am pursuing is to get it right in camera, on film, from the word go."